Vienna, 5 November – The United Nations General Assembly today adopted a 10 year action-plan aimed at accelerating sustainable development in the world’s 32 landlocked developing countries (LLDCs). The Vienna Programme of Action with six clearly defined priorities encapsulates a unified stance by the international community on a broad array of crucial issues, from concrete steps toward the structural transformation of LLDCs’ economies and infrastructure development to improving international trade and bolstering regional integration and cooperation.

“We are strongly committed to the implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action to address, in a holistic manner, the special development needs and challenges of landlocked developing countries arising from their landlockedness, remoteness and geographical constraints,” proclaimed the Vienna Declaration at the conclusion of the Second United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries attended by more than 1,000 participants in the Austrian capital.

The 23-page outcome document was described by the Secretary-General of the Conference Gyan Chandra Acharya as an important milestone in promoting the development agenda of LLDCs.

The document, for instance, expresses an unambiguous commitment by all governments to ensure greater emphasis on reducing transit time, promoting infrastructure development and maintenance, ensuring trade facilitation measures in an accelerated manner, besides linking them with the promotion of economic diversification, structural transformation, connectivity to global value chains and regional integration. This holistic approach together with a clear call to ensure coherence with the global processes is expected to enable the LLDCs to achieve sustained and sustainable economic growth and ensure their meaningful integration into the global economy.

“The Vienna conference has come out with a holistic, forward looking and action oriented program and I clearly see that in the document that has been adopted,” said Acharya in his closing remarks.

Acharya added that the text was holistic in taking up transit, trade, infrastructure issues together with the regional cooperation, structural transformation and coherence with the global processes in a pronounced manner as priorities. He further stressed that while recognizing the special challenges and vulnerabilities of LLDCs, Member States have stressed that the landlocked countries have to transform themselves into land linked countries in order to reap full benefits from regional cooperation and globalization. He explained, that the outcome document was action-oriented as governments had clearly spelt out tangible actions to be taken by LLDCs, transit countries and development partners in each of the six priority areas identified together with clear national, regional and global level implementation, monitoring and review.

Mr. Acharya highlighted that the outcome document stresses renewed and strengthened partnerships between the LLDCs, transit countries and development partners within the context of north-south as well as south-south and triangular cooperation. He, however, added that while the action-plan “recognizes that LLDCs have the primary responsibility for their own development” the group of countries require support “to effectively mobilize adequate domestic and external resources for effective implementation of the Programme of Action.” A recurring theme throughout the three day meeting has been that while the LLDCs have seen incremental economic gains over the past decade, this progress has not made a meaningful dent in the rate of poverty among this group of countries and that the progress remained fragile in many of the LLDCs. Nine of the 15 countries at the bottom rung of the development ladder are landlocked and the vast majority continue to lag behind their maritime neigbours in socio-economic development. To remedy this, the Vienna text calls for support “in a more coherent manner” which would “contribute to an enhanced rate of sustainable and inclusive growth, which can contribute to the eradication of poverty”. In his closing statement to the conference, the Foreign Minister of Austria Sebastian Kurz, who was also the President of the Conference, said, “Our overarching goal is clear: generating sustainable and inclusive growth to invest in infrastructure, to facilitate trade and to reduce poverty.” Kurz added that the conference had been “instrumental in exploring new ways of engaging private sector activity and of promoting public-private partnerships and private investments.”

The meeting saw a flurry of activity with four high-level interactive thematic round-tables and 18 side events organized by various stakeholders in the margins of the meeting on a wide-range of issues relevant to the LLDCs, transit transport development, trade capacity enhancement and further integration into the regional and global markets. The events gathered Heads of State, Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers, United Nations Secretary General, President of the General Assembly and Heads and senior representatives from international organizations who shared their views and experiences on how to enhance LLDCs’ economic diversification and competitiveness through strengthened investments and policy measures in the areas of transport, infrastructure development and trade facilitation, sustainable energy and sustainable transport, through partnerships on vocational training, through increased regionalization of aid for trade, and particularly for landlocked least developed countries, through effective implementation of the Enhanced Integrated Framework. Other topics covered by side events were climate-smart agriculture, connectivity challenges, the role of migration and the special challenges of mountainous LLDCs.
A day-long Business and Investment Forum brought together business leaders, government officials from landlocked countries and transit countries, as well as development partners. Delegates attending the Forum agreed on the importance of the role of the private sector in the promoting infrastructure and development objectives of LLDCs and the related Sustainable Development Goals. Participants reiterated that the private sector was encouraged by the UN and International Chamber of Commerce to collaborate further and move this agenda forward. They stressed private sector investments as key in enabling LLDCs to diversify and grow their economies, while calling for government to ensure better enabling environment and for the private sector to pursue responsible business practices. Particular emphasis was placed on promotion of SMEs, linkages between private sectors and public private partnerships.

“We have come a long way but the real work begins now,” Acharya said. “We must now move ahead to deliver with determination the Vienna Program of action that we have agreed here with understanding, solidarity and support of all. The international community has to deliver on these commitments to the 440 million people living in the landlocked developing countries.”

]]>Delegates at a UN conference on Monday need to find solutions to the unique disadvantages facing landlocked poor countries

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) face particular challenges that limit their potential gains from trade, and restrict their resources for investing in development. Although the world’s 32 LLDCs have recorded good economic gains recently – with the value of exports increasing almost fivefold between 2003 and 2013 (pdf) – their share of global trade hovers at about 1%.

Such gains have not been enough to boost the prospects of these countries, many of which are still on the bottom rung of the development ladder. The human development report 2014 paints a stark picture. Notwithstanding a sharp drop in the number of children dying from preventable diseases and a small rise in the number of young girls in school, nine of the 15 countries with the lowest Human Development Index scores are landlocked. Life expectancy, in most cases, continues to lag behind neighbouring coastal countries.

The lack of access to the sea means it is far more expensive to import essential items and export goods. It is estimated that the basic trade costs of LLDCs are nearly twice those of neighbouring countries with coastlines.

A recent World Bank study (pdf) shows that, on average, it costs $3,040 (£1,900) to export a standard container of cargo from a landlocked developing country, whereas a coastal neighbour spends about $1,268. Likewise, a country such as Burundi pays $3,643 to import a similar container of merchandise compared with $1,567 for its coastal neighbours in east Africa.

When the global recession bottomed out in 2009, it left the gross domestic product growth rate for this group of countries at 3.6%, substantially below the decade-long average of 6.1%. Five years later, growth continues to slow, reflecting the effects of the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, the double recession in major economies and the anaemic global demand for commodities.

It is our hope that the second UN conference onLLDCs, in Vienna from 3-5 November, will offer concrete ways in which the cooperation and collaboration between landlocked developing countries and transit countries can be strengthened with the support of the international community.

In order to address successfully many of the attendant challenges in LLDCs, there needs to be an action plan for sustainable and inclusive growth, structural transformation and economic diversification. The focus should also be on strengthening LLDCs’ production capacity in agriculture, manufacturing and the service sector.

Data analysis shows a steady decline in added value with the agriculture and manufacturing sectors in LLDCs. It has become urgent to reverse this trend, and to promote LLDCs’ participation in regional and global value chains.

The private sector in general, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, have an important role to play, especially in employment creation, poverty alleviation and structural transformation. A competitive private sector generates efficiency, higher productivity, foreign exchange earnings and incomes.

But SMEs remain regrettably weak in most LLDCs. They have poor access to markets, lack adequate finance and are also found wanting in other areas including technology, a skilled labour force, and critical infrastructure and utilities.

Since LLDCs typically suffer from a general lack of resources and underfunded social sectors due to structural barriers, official development assistance (ODA) strategies should recognise the large infrastructure needs of low-income landlocked countries and the need for an increase in direct assistance to support large-scale investments in roads and railways.

ODA must be complemented by investment in and development of trade capacity, which also contributes to promoting the domestic resource base. A significant part of the Vienna conference will be dedicated to this.

As the world continues to discuss the development agenda after the millennium development goals expire in 2015, we should recognise the special needs of landlocked developing countries. Sustainable development of our global community cannot be achieved without taking into account the concerns and aspirations of vulnerable economies.

• Sebastian Kurz is the foreign minister of Austria.

• Gyan Chandra Acharya is the UN under secretary general for least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states

LLDC ministers called for stronger efforts to develop productive capacity and drive diversification through foreign direct investment (FDI), to set these countries on a growth path.

In contrast with the recovery in global FDI in 2013, FDI inflows to LLDCs declined for the second year running. The flows to these countries fell by 11 percent in 2013, compared with the 9 percent rise in world flows. While the $30 billion in FDI flows to LLDCs in 2013 represented only 2 percent of global flows, with three-quarters of these investments going to six mineral-exporting LLDCs, FDI remains relatively more important for this group of economies than for developing countries as a whole. The potential role of FDI is therefore significant.

“Given the importance of FDI to this group of economies, more efforts should be made to increase and diversify foreign investments, and to maximize their impact on sustainable development outcomes,” UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.

Because economies of landlocked countries face persistent challenges linked to the negative impact that their geographical location has on trade opportunities, the Almaty Programme of Action has focused on actions needed for the further development of trade-related infrastructure and improvements in customs and in trade facilitation.

Gyan Chandra Acharya, United Nations Undersecretary-General and High Representative for least developed countries, LLDCs and small island developing states, said that collaboration between LLDCs and transit countries, and the development of productive capacities and economic diversification, was important in boosting the economies of LLDCs.

Ministers at the meeting echoed this, with Lao’s Vice Minister of Planning and Economy, Bounthavy Sisouphanthong, noting that “growth in the non-resource industrial and services sectors is an important basis for diversification of the Lao economy over the long-term.”

Enhanced regional cooperation was also mentioned as an important way to realize development through cross-border infrastructure projects and regional clusters of firms. This will require measures to reduce barriers and facilitate cross-border investments, mechanisms for joint investment promotion and a series of policy measures to accommodate regional business development projects, including policies to harmonize or mutually recognize regulatory standards.

Rigoberto Gauto Vielman, Minister for Economic Relations and Integration of Paraguay, underlined the importance of regional integration. He also said that countries should support their domestic enterprises because a vibrant local business community gives a strong signal to foreign companies.

Louise Kantrow, Permanent Representative of the International Chamber of Commerce to the United Nations, added that more government and multilateral action should be taken to increase the size of the formal economy.

Ahmed Abtew Asfaw, Ethiopia’s Minister of Industry, said: “Geography matters in FDI and trade, but it’s equally important not to overstate this factor. New technologies are changing the impact of traditional barriers.”

The important role of technology was also underlined by Anat Bar-Gera, Chairman of YooMee Africa, an international telecommunications and Internet company. She said that the introduction of broadband in LLDCs can bring innovation, advance learning and spur enterprise development.

Private sector representatives agreed that investment would play a key role in developing these productive capacities, which can help to advance targets in the proposed sustainable development goals.

A report on the meeting will be made available to the participants of the Second UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, which starts in Vienna on 3 November 2014.

UNCTAD also launched the third edition of its Investment Guide to the Silk Road at the meeting. The publication outlines the investment climate and opportunities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as four western provinces of China.

Temir Sariev, the Minister of Economy of Kyrgyzstan, welcomed UNCTAD’s publication, saying that the guide will contribute to the rebirth of the Silk Road.

Wang Shouwen, China’s Assistant Minister of Commerce, congratulated UNCTAD on the publication and said that previous editions of the guide had been very helpful to the Chinese government and private sector.

]]>23 Oct 2014 UN body joins effort to build Asian info superhighwayhttp://www.lldc2conference.org/conference_details/23-oct-2014-un-body-joins-effort-to-build-asian-info-superhighway/
Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:56:01 +0000http://www.lldc2conference.org/?post_type=conference_details&p=3180The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is leading an effort to build a terrestrial information superhighway in the region that will increase the availability of international bandwidth and lower its prices in 32 […]

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is leading an effort to build a terrestrial information superhighway in the region that will increase the availability of international bandwidth and lower its prices in 32 member countries.

The proposed information superhighway will be the world’s longest optical fibre connectivity along the 143,000-kilometre Asian highway.

The member countries have also agreed to develop a master plan covering both policy and technical aspects of the Asia-Pacific Informa-tion Superhighway, ESCAP, the UN development arm for the Asia-Pacific region, said in a statement.

The initiative is aimed at connecting each country’s backbone network and integrating them into a cohesive land- and sea-based fibre infrastructure.

Asia-Pacific nations agreed to set up a working group to develop principles and norms for the regional ICT network at the fourth session of ESCAP’s ICT committee, which closed in Bangkok last week.

The biggest barrier to any new infrastructure is cost, but the actual expense of fibre optic materials and conduits are almost negligible, Shamshad Akhtar, executive secretary of ESCAP, said in the statement.

The real challenges are the labour costs of excavation, the costs of securing rights of way, especially across borders, as well as the implicit costs of disruptions and delays in the areas under construction, she said.

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By encouraging the building of ICT infrastructure along the transport networks, countries that need it most can significantly reduce these construction charges, Akhtar said.

Aside from cost savings of up to 80 percent, this ‘dig once — use many times’ approach expands and diversifies the revenues generated by infrastructure construction: a win-win for governments, private sector investors and newly-connected communities, she said.

Currently, less than 15 percent of the population in developing Asia and the Pacific has access to high-speed internet and the situation is even worse in least-developed and landlocked countries, where inexpensive and reliable internet is almost non-existent, according to Akhtar..

SM Ashraful Islam, executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council, who also participated in the session, said once the backbone is built, Bangladesh will have the potential to become the transcontinental networks’ hub.

Khan unveiled the concept of building the information superhighway during a meeting of ESCAP in Colombo in 2012. It prompted the UN body to study the state of broadband and international connectivity across South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Russia. Subsequently, LIRNEasia has reviewed the studies and prepared a policy brief for ESCAP.

At the Bangkok meeting last week, both the ICT and transport departments of ESCAP have agreed to take the project forward, Khan said.

While attributing to Bangladesh, the senior policy fellow said fibre along the country’s portion of Asian Highway will have four transit points on the Indian and Myanmar borders. It will phenomenally boost the country’s resilience in terms of international telecommunication connectivity, he added.

The international terrestrial cable operators will also enjoy greater options to trade international bandwidth beyond Bhutan and Nepal, he said. “The terrestrial information superhighway will also inject invaluable route-diversity to the current and future submarine cable systems of Bangladesh.”

Khan said international internet bandwidth is up to six times cheaper in Europe, as the countries are terrestrially connected with each other. Asian countries are, on the contrary, interconnected exclusively through submarine cables. High costs of deploying and maintaining the subsea systems are therefore reflected in exorbitant wholesale bandwidth prices, he said.

All Asian countries are experienced in deploying and maintaining terrestrial optical fibre cables; it will be business as usual for developing Asia to build the backbone, Khan said.

The Bangladesh government must take the issue seriously and both the communication and the telecom ministry should work together, as a high price of internet is the main obstacle to materialising a Digital Bangladesh, added Khan.

Geneva: Least-developed and land-locked developing countries like Uganda should be integrated in the global economy “through open, non-discriminatory and equitable trade,” a senior United Nations (UN) diplomat has said.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general, has also called for the promotion of policy coherence between the economic, financial and trade systems.

“We need an open, fair, rules-based and development-oriented international trading regime in the spirit of the Doha Development Round,” he said. “The United Nations fully supports the efforts of the WTO to conclude the Doha Round.”

Speaking at the 2014 World Trade Organisation (WTO) Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, recently, Ban Ki Moon warned of fragmented trade rules and undermining the consistency of the multilateral system, saying slow progress on the multilateral trade agenda has locked out least developed countries from enjoying the benefits of an open trade system.

“Many least developed and land-locked developing countries have yet to fully benefit from increased global trade. This is critical to diversifying their economies and making them more stable and resilient,” he said.

Uganda is one of those countries whose goods are subjected to strict quality standards before they are allowed into richer markets like the European Union. As such, many companies have resorted to exporting their products like markets closer to home, such as South Sudan, in order to survive.

On the other hand, developed countries continue to dump goods in African markets like Uganda, crowding out local industries. Also, richer countries enjoy the benefit of subsidies, offering them an opportunity to export their products to regions like East Africa thereby outcompeting local materials. This is part of what the forum in Geneva wants addressed.

In his keynote address at the forum, the WTO Director General, Roberto Azevedo, emphasised that the very existence of an international trading system creates a stable, predictable and transparent business environment, which supports growth and development in Africa.

Azevedo said the WTO’s Aid for Trade initiative can play an important role, given that Africa is its largest beneficiary, and that the full implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement can help to integrate Africa and cut the costs of trading significantly.

“Our aim is to open markets,” Azevêdo said, “but it is also to support less developed countries to participate, to prevent harmful practices, and to provide a fair system which rules are agreed by all, where disputes are settled in an open and transparent manner, and where everyone has a seat at the table.”

He stressed that global tradehas become a matter of headlines and high politics.

“Trade matters to everyone because every day, for good or ill, it affects us all. It affects the goods we can buy and the prices we pay for them,” and “it affects the poorest the most,” he added.

The Public Forum is the WTO’s largest annual outreach event, which provides a platform for participants to debate and discuss the latest developments in world trade and to propose ways of enhancing the multilateral trading system. It attracts representatives from academia, business, the media, governments, civil society, parliamentarians and inter-governmental organizations.

Anoush der Boghossian, the co-ordinator WTO Public Forums, said the quality of sessions has improved over the years.

She said: “We chose the theme: “Why trade matters to everyone” as our central topic because our objective is to tell the human story behind trade, to illustrate the impact of trade on people’s daily lives and to raise awareness about how trade can raise living standards.”

Razia Khan, Managing Director of Africa Macro Global Research at Standard Chartered, said that African economies had grown considerably. Khan praised the above-average economic performance of the region compared with global growth. However, she recognized that while trade had been successful in addressing poverty in Asia, African countries had not benefited from inclusive growth. Khan said that a focus on SMEs must be renewed so that high economic growth is translated into better outcomes for society.

The international community must do more to provide landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) with the agricultural and industrial technology to turn raw materials into high-value products, a UN chief tells SciDev.Net ahead Second UN Conference on LLDCs, in Vienna, Austria (3-5 November).

Providing better access to new technologies should be a central pillar of any future development strategy or these countries will remain overly-reliant on the export of low-value commodities, slowing their economic development, says Sandagdorj Erdenebileg.

“If they want to diversify their economies they have to do so through the transfer of technology,” says Erdenebileg, who is head of the Policy Development, Coordination, and Reporting Service at the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States.

“The need is more pressing than in any other developing country.”

There are 32 landlocked developing countries: 16 in Africa, 12 in Asia, two in Latin America and two in Europe. They include Bhutan, Burundi, Chad, Laos, Macedonia, Niger and Zambia.

Erdenebileg says that helping LLDCs make high-value processed goods is an accepted way for them to overcome the geographical isolation that raises their transport costs by up to 50 per cent, as these products are less bulky compared to their value.

But high commodity prices during the early years of the new millennium caused governments and international development agencies to favour raw material exports, he says.

This issue will be back on the agenda of decision-makers when they meet next month (3-5 November) to produce a text to replace the Almaty Programme of Action (APoA), a document that has guided international attempts to speed up development in coastless nations since 2003.

Discussions at UN’s Vienna conference on LLDCs will include ways of pushing richer nations for more explicit commitments to aid tech transfer to boost manufacturing and trade, he says.

This may include developing licensing agreements to give free of preferential access to technologies providing training and capacity building, and encouraging foreign investment in agriculture and industry, says Erdenebileg.

Many of the networks needed to implement these changes already exist, such as the UN-hosted South-South Global Assets and Technology Exchange (SS-GATE), but donors are “not doing enough” to maximise their impacts, he adds.

Erdenetsogt Odbayar, the interim director of the International Think Tank for LLDCs, based in Mongolia, agrees that the international development community is giving insufficient attention to the “major issue” of tech transfer.

But before any meaningful action is taken, the specific technological and human capacity needs of each country must be assessed, he tells SciDev.Net.

And, the private sector must be better integrated into discussions, as business investment is the only way to meet the high, long-term costs of developing the extractive industries, such as mining, that so many LLDCs rely on to provide the raw materials for conversion, Odbayar adds.

The draft of the conference outcome document already acknowledges this reality, as well as making significant improvements to the APoA it will replace on issues such as capacity building and infrastructure, he adds.

Unlike the APoA, the document has a section on science, technology and innovation, in which it calls for access to new technology and knowledge and is peppered with references to science.

“Landlocked developing countries should promote investment in science, innovation and technology for sustainable development,” it says.

They should prioritise the development of a national policy to promote science, technology and innovation; build and expand strategic partnerships, such as with the private sector, universities and other research institutions; promote innovative solutions for modern and cost-effective technologies that could be adapted locally; and establish high-level technology centres, the document says.

Development partners, it adds, could provide financial and technical support; promote the sharing of best practice and innovative technologies and the transfer of technology and know-how; and support the networking of research institutions and the creation of high-level technology centres.

But despite tech transfer’s importance, many LLDCs have more fundamental problems, says Odbayar.

“They don’t even have basic governance,” he says. “Political stability must be established before tech transfer can be effective.”

]]>4 Oct 2014 – Turkmenistan embarks on massive transport projectshttp://www.lldc2conference.org/conference_details/4-oct-2014-turkmenistan-embarks-on-massive-transport-projects/
Thu, 09 Oct 2014 18:47:54 +0000http://www.lldc2conference.org/?post_type=conference_details&p=3058Turkmenistan Ambassador Nazarguly Shagulyev spoke about his country’s massive development in the transport sector as one of the main factors in the development of the world economy. The ambassador, who was referring to the new $5 billion causeway between Saudi […]

]]>Turkmenistan Ambassador Nazarguly Shagulyev spoke about his country’s massive development in the transport sector as one of the main factors in the development of the world economy.

The ambassador, who was referring to the new $5 billion causeway between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, made his observation following the International Conference at the ministerial level, held in Ashgabat recently, which was attended by delegations from more than 30 countries including Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

The envoy praised the ongoing Saudi mega projects including railways and the Riyadh metro, noting that his country has also embarked on doing so as a serious factor in geopolitics, a powerful integration resource that can provide greater economic and political preferences for states and regions to promote the interoperability of their strategic interests by joining the vast spaces of production and resource potentials.

“The creation of a modern, extensive and safe international transport infrastructure thus becomes imperative for global development, dictating the necessity of placing the discussion of this issue at the inter-regional and international levels as a separate long-term direction of multilateral cooperation,” Shagulyev said.

He added: “This is particularly important for Turkmenistan, which is located in a favorable geographical position. Based on this, our country has been consistently increasing its transport capacity, initiating and implementing major international and regional projects in the field of transport, designed to bring a new level of international economic and trade cooperation.

Our activity also aims to ensure strategies that give impetus to inter-regional relations in the long term, to lay the foundation of a new geo-economic architecture of the space on the Eurasian continent,” he said adding that in this sense, Turkmenistan stands as an economic bridge between Asia and Europe.

According to him, the key concept of determining the strategy of Turkmenistan in the transport sector is diversification, which “we regard as a decisive factor in the formation of a multivariate international transport infrastructure. Its development is one of the unquestionable priorities of Turkmenistan’s policy pursued by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.”

In this context, he continued, “our country stands for the creation of new transit-transport and trade corridors in the directions of “East-West” and “North-South,” allowing integration of national transport systems of the various regions of the continent into the global international communications network.”

According to the ambassador, in this case, the importance is given to the initiatives of the President of Turkmenistan to develop effective transport routes between the Caspian, Black and Baltic Seas. Along with these activities is the formation of the transport network bringing together regions of Central, South and Southeast Asia with the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The practical implementation of these ideas comes to life through the construction of new railways and motor roads and the activation of sea routes

“As is known, the longest section of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway has a length of about 1,000 kilometers. Today, by means of this route, it will be possible to connect a large number of countries and regions in the North, West and East Eurasia and the South of the continent with the shortest and most economical routes.

At the same time, our country has begun the construction of a new railway, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan, which is designed to serve as a link between the Central Asian region and South Asia. Another important transportation project — a transit corridor — Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman, has also been created.

Based on the aforesaid, the Turkmen side notes that Turkmenistan will continue to pursue active transport policies aimed at addressing the global challenges facing the international community in the context of sustainable development,” the envoy concluded.

]]>Information on Visa Requirements and Accommodationhttp://www.lldc2conference.org/conference_details/information-on-visa-requirements-and-accomodation/
Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:14:51 +0000http://www.lldc2conference.org/?post_type=conference_details&p=2864Visa Requirements A visa for entry into Austria may be required. Participants concerned are strongly advised to seek information on requirements applicable in their case from Austrian diplomatic or consular missions in their home countries. More Details Accommodation Vienna has […]

A visa for entry into Austria may be required. Participants concerned are strongly advised to seek information on requirements applicable in their case from Austrian diplomatic or consular missions in their home countries.

]]>Conference Side Eventshttp://www.lldc2conference.org/conference_details/conference-side-events/
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 16:15:38 +0000http://www.lldc2conference.org/?post_type=conference_details&p=2826Side events organised by Governments, UN system and other Inter-governmental Organizations, and Major Groups, will be held during the Second United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries and the meetings of its Preparatory Committee. More Details

]]>Side events organised by Governments, UN system and other Inter-governmental Organizations, and Major Groups, will be held during the Second United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries and the meetings of its Preparatory Committee.